1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless printing system and method based on IEEE 802.11, and more particularly, to a printing client and a printing server.
2. Description of the Related Art
Demand for wireless printing has increased. There are various print clients, such as a Personal Computer (PC), a cellular phone, a digital camera, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and the like. In order to allow such terminals to perform wireless printing using a printer at a remote location, related studies are under way.
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional printing method. Referring to FIG. 1, two conventional printing methods are performed using a printer at a remote location.
First, a user 12 who wishes to use a printer 11 is informed of an Internet Protocol (IP) address of the printer 11 by a network manager 13. The user 12 requests the printer 11 to print a print job using the IP address of the printer 11. This method, in which the network manager 13 needs to inform the user 12 of the IP address, is complicated and fails to obtain the IP address when the network manager 13 is absent.
Second, in a multicast Domain Name System (DNS), a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) system, etc., a user 16 obtains the IP address of a printer 15 using a Service Discovery Protocol (SDP). In this regard, the terminal of the user 16 corresponds to a SDP client, and the printer 15 corresponds to a SDP server. According to the SDP, the user 16 requests the printer 15 to send the IP address of the printer 15. The printer 15 transmits the IP address thereof to the user 16 in response to the request. Although this method partly solves the problems of the first method, it is still a complicated process which requires the SDP to be separately performed. Since different printer manufacturing companies have different SDP processes, terminals manufactured by different companies are not compatible with each other.